Adeodata

By Dana Paul Robinson

Set against the backdrop of a graceful New England estate in the 1990s, Adeodata weaves a captivating tale of six distinct individuals, each navigating complex interrelationships and personal crises of faith. The narrative features an archbishop on the cusp of becoming a cardinal who shockingly discovers he has a grandchild, a wealthy but morally compromised bachelor business tycoon known for his generosity, a stressed housekeeper mourning the loss of societal civility, the tycoon’s widowed sister-in-law who has been the object of his lifelong affection, a young rock singer in search of meaningful direction, and a beautiful Italian orphan who, while seeking her sole surviving relative in New England, tragically contracts a fatal disease.

Each character faces unique challenges, raising profound philosophical questions. How does one cope with unexpected tragedy? What does it mean to confront loneliness and a lack of purpose? What obligations arise when one’s life is saved by another? And what role does beauty play in our lives?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Jun 21, 2024
• ISBN: 9781035857166

Dana Paul Robinson

Having retired after a half century banking career, Dana Paul Robinson now pursues writing among other avocations. He and his wife reside in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and enjoy the good fortune of living near their three children and seven grandchildren.

Book preview

Adeodata

Dana Paul Robinson

Austin Macauley Publishers

Adeodata

About the Author

Dedication

Copyright Information ©

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

About the Author

Having retired after a half century banking career, Dana Paul Robinson now pursues writing among other avocations. He and his wife reside in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and enjoy the good fortune of living near their three children and seven grandchildren.

Dedication

To mothers who play the piano.

Copyright Information ©

Dana Paul Robinson 2024

The right of Dana Paul Robinson to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781035857159 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781035857166 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2024

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Chapter One

May had five Tuesdays that year. As she dusted the piano, Rose chuckled over the irrelevance of this fact. Whether a month had four or five Tuesdays, the piano was still dusted fifty-two times a year. Her household duties were on a weekly schedule.

The Steinway was a prominent presence in the living room, not a small boast given the exceptional quality of the other furniture and the objets d’art that adorned the room. The piano had belonged to Mr Nate MacBride’s mother and, according to him, was the one possession that brought beauty to their hardscrabble lives as their family attempted to make ends meet in Brooklyn – where they lived during the Great Depression. It was his mother’s playing that kept their spirits up as he and his younger brother, Artie, faced the challenges of growing up in a fatherless home during that difficult time.

The house’s panoramic view of the Atlantic Ocean and this precious piano inspired Mr MacBride to name his home Sea Serenade. Rose found this to be ironic because in all the time she had worked for him, Rose had never heard Nate MacBride play. She understood that when he was a young man, he was proficient with music, both classical and popular. And yet, in the thirty years she had worked for him, Rose had never heard Nate MacBride play one note on this assiduously maintained instrument.

This May, Rose realised, was the first one in the last decade of the twentieth century. As she straightened the numerous periodicals on the magazine table, she considered that although a new millennium would soon begin not much had changed in this magnificent New England estate since its owner hired her housekeeping services soon after its construction.

Just as the house hadn’t changed much in the intervening years, neither had its owner. MacBride was a life-long and very wealthy bachelor. The source of his fortune had been aggressive investing in the real estate market in the years following the Second World War. Those were boom times. The GI Bill along with other factors unleashed the ‘animal spirits’ of a still very young America. Highways were built. There was even a new word that entered the nation’s vocabulary, ‘suburb’, and with it an insatiable demand for new homes. Car ownership was growing exponentially. The young MacBride rode that economic boom to the fullest extent his inexhaustible energy allowed. That his practices may have been considered cutting edge or cut-throat, no one noticed. The market was hot and he was a driven man.

As she freshened the floral arrangements in the twin jade vases on the mantle over the marble fireplace, Rose reflected on her early years at Sea Serenade. At that time, in the early 1960s, Mr MacBride was already wealthy enough to afford the considerable seaside acreage with this magnificent residence